Tenant vs. Tenant

My wife and i just moved out of the apt in the middle of the month, with the new tenants moving in right after we got out. The landlord said it would be easier to have the new tenants pay us back a pro-rated amount for the balance of days of the month we were no longer living in the apartment. I explained this to the new tenants and they understood what the expectation was and said to come back in 2 days to pick up the check. After 2 days we went back and found it difficult to get them on the phone, they did not answer the door at the property and when we finally did get a hold of them, they said they were not going to pay because they did not sign any paper. I have witnesses (including the Landlord) willing to testify on my behalf when we go to small claims becuase these individiauls owe me 600 dollars. My wife is a college student and i am in the Navy, we live paycheck to paycheck and this puts us in a bind. what advice do you have to offer?

Always get all agreements in wiriting. You will have to prove to a judge now that there was a verbal agreement to get that money since these tenants obviously appear to be skipping out.

I have to ask though, why does the LL think this is the tenant's responsibility? Did he collect a prorated month's rent from these new tenants? Did they pay for the rest of the month that you moved out? Then wasn't he paid twice for that period of the month? If so, that is illegal. He cannot "double dip" like that. He can only be paid once for that period. You had already paid rent for that time, right? If he collected rent for that period from the tenants too, the LL owes you that money back based on the fact that he didn't lose any money and had no monetary damages when you moved out in mid-month. If he allowed then to live there free for the rest of that month, then you may be able to collect from the tenants. But I still feel that this is the LL's responsibility to collect rent and pay you, not your responsibility. He is the one who is benefiting from this.